Saturday, March 27, 2010

Today, I spent the whole day with the Twin Cities Area Counsel of Camera Clubs. It was their annual "spring break" event. They brought in a number of great speakers and some vendors selling camera gear.

I most enjoyed the lunch time event held by the Minnesota Wildlife Connection. They brought in one of their new wolves, Sheriff, for us to photograph. The above shot is one of only a few I was able to get without his tough out. It was probably very warm for a wolf today at 40F - 50F or so.

In case you are wondering, this is a captive and not a wild wolf. I believe he was born in captivity so he'd have a difficult if not impossible time surviving in the wild. The Minnesota Wildlife Connection is certified by the Humane Society, USDA and Minnesota DNA (according to their website.)

I am sorry you have experienced a problem with one of our products, and assure you that feedback on product quality is important to us.

There can be smoking at the end of life on CFL's on rare occasions. This is generally not cause for alarm and we have yet to see a case where there is an actual flame. Our products are UL listed and the plastic housing is made of a material designed not to sustain combustion.

All GE bulbs have a rated life warranty, and we are glad to file a product claim on your behalf. You should receive a response within 15 days via US Postal Service.

Please retain the failed product until you are contacted in writing. Product Services periodically requests the product be returned for testing, and if so, a pre-paid mailer or shipping label will be provided. Your reference number is: 2010015428.

If you have already disposed of the product, please follow the instructions in the written response.

To make sure you have the most efficient product for your application, please visit our FAQs on www.gelighting.com.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

I try to do my part in running a green household. I have a super efficient washing machine, furnace and water heater. This has saved me some nice money over the years. I've even replaced most of my old light bulbs with compact fluorescent.

Today, while I was moving my clean cloths from the washer to the dryer, I smelled something burning. There was smoke coming from my compact fluorescent bulb. I quickly turned off the switch. It stopped smoldering after about a minute so I uninstalled it. Here is the result (click on the pic to go to the Flickr page and then "all sizes" to get a close-up. It looks like it burned right through the ceramic like housing. Luckily I was home and noticed it right away. It only left a nasty burnt plasticy smell throughout the house. No telling what would have happened if wasn't around to notice it.

Fascinating. I wonder how many of these do this. I bought the GE brand, not some knock-off cheapo brand, because I felt safer going with a well known company. When an energy inefficient incandescent burns out, the circuit is simply broken and things don't start on fire. Now I'm wondering if the risk is worth the reward in having these new energy friendly bulbs...not to mention that they are toxic and can't go into the normal garbage can.

I plan to contact GE about this and will likely send it in to them. Stay tuned.

About Me

Visitors to my great blog:

JREF

Disclaimer and Copyright

Mully410 is not responsible for any outside content linked to from this blog. All opinions of Mully410 are the sole responsibily of Mully410 and are only guaranteed to be at least somewhat researched and are probably true to the best of Mully410's knowledge.